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'Nuclear Free' Maryland City Grants Waiver For HP

Posted by timothy on from the pollyanna-buys-a-gun dept.

dcblogs writes "The City of Takoma Park, Md. this week granted a waiver to its public library to allow it to use some new HP hardware, whose products are otherwise banned under its 'nuclear free zone' ordinance. That law, adopted in 1983 one month after the Cold War-era movie 'The Day After' was aired, prohibits the city from buying equipment from any company connected to U.S. nuclear weapons production. The library bought new Linux-based, x86 systems from a Canadian vendor and didn't realize the vendor was using HP hardware. The hardware arrived in April and was unused until the Takoma Park city council granted it a waiver this week. The city's list of banned contractors was developed in 2004 by a now inactive group, Nuclear Free America, and hasn't been updated since."

13 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Movies by AkaKaryuu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Movies, not reason, dictates their city policy.

    1. Re:Movies by jeffmeden · · Score: 5, Funny

      Movies, not reason, dictates their city policy.

      You should see the stockpile of shotguns and Patrick Swayze clones they have on hand just in case Red Dawn comes true...

    2. Re:Movies by SJHillman · · Score: 3, Funny

      So given that Indians are no longer called Indians, does that mean that people descended from the indigenous population can be served but not the guys from India?

    3. Re:Movies by BackwardPawn · · Score: 5, Funny

      In an ironic twist, they stockpiled plutonium in case someone's DeLorean got stuck 30 years in the past. They did get a waiver for it, though.

    4. Re:Movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Apparently arming the shit out of your populace (with automatic rifles) is a far greater deterrent to being attacked than stockpiling nuclear weapons.

      Cool. Then we (US Americans) are covered on both counts.

    5. Re:Movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      Not to mention -and has been since at least 1983.

      If I was in that town I'd be pushing for it's repeal. Just like I pushed for getting rid of the ban on selling alcohol to indians in my old town. Yes, the law called them Indians.

      At least they didn't call them "prairie niggers".

    6. Re:Movies by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

      Good for you for having principals

      He's a school district?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    7. Re:Movies by jamstar7 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Although the one thing I look back on and laugh about is how one of the main characters survives by ducking down in the front seat of his Volvo and surviving the shock wave. Everyone else on the freeway was vaporized. I remember thinking we really needed to get a Volvo after that.

      Who says product placement doesn't work???

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
    8. Re:Movies by geminidomino · · Score: 3, Funny

      Our lawyers will be contacting you shortly. Prepare to be both legally and bodily violated. We will make you sorry you were ever born.

      XOXOXOX,
      The Church of Scientology

    9. Re:Movies by Muad'Dave · · Score: 4, Funny

      Negative: I am a Meat Popsicle.

      --
      Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  2. If you've ever visited Takoma Park... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    ... then you'd realize that this was the least of their worries.

  3. Try to keep up, people. by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Nuclear free" is sooo 1980s. It's all about "greenness" now. You need to update your pc checklists monthly.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  4. Re:Of all the stupid laws.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Really? Can not buy anything from a company that is related to US nuclear weapons production? Really? What a stupid do nothing make everybody feel good while accomplishing nothing lets all hold hands and sing Kumbaya crap law!

    No, wrong problem. The REAL problem is that HP is involved in US nuclear weapons production. And now Microsoft is making their computer manufacturing partners very very angry, and one of those manufacturers is HP...

    Stay away from the Redmond, WA area for the time being, is all I'm saying.